Battles have long featured prominently in historical consciousness, as moments when the balance of power was seen to have tipped, or when aspects of collective identity were shaped. But how have perspectives on warfare changed? How similar are present day ideologies of warfare to those of the medieval period? Looking back over a thousand years of British, Irish and Scandinavian battles, this significant collection of essays examines how different times and cultures have reacted to war, considering the changing roles of religion and technology in the experience and memorialisation of conflict. While fighting and killing have been deplored, glorified and everything in between across the ages, Writing Battles reminds us of the visceral impact left on those who come after

Prologue /

Brendan Simms --

1. Introduction /

Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Rory Naismith and Elizabeth Ashman Rowe --

2.

Battle Names in the Middle Ages / Robert Bartlett --

3.

Battle-writing and Commemoration: the Transition from Violence to Peace / Jenny Benham --

4.

'Undying Glory by the Sword's Edge': Writing and Remembering Battle in Anglo-Saxon England / Matthew Strickland --

5.

Fortress London: War and Peace in an Anglo-Saxon City / Rory Naismith --

6.

'Trembling Sods'?: Rhetoric and Reality in Battle-Narratives from Medieval Ireland and Britain / Máire Ní Mhaonaigh --

7.

'Sword-Age, Axe-Age': Writing Battles in Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia / Elizabeth Ashman Rowe --

8.

Which 'Pagans'? The Influence of the Crusades on battle-Narratives in Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia / Natalia Petrovskaia --

9.

Battle of Bannockburn 1314 / Tony Pollard --

10.

A Troubled Memory: Battles of the First World War / Robert Tombs